Decaf

What is Decaf?

Decaffeination is the removal of caffeine from coffee beans, cocoa, tea leaves, and other caffeine-containing materials. Decaffeinated products are commonly termed by the abbreviation decaf. To ensure product quality, manufacturers are required to test the newly decaffeinated coffee beans to make sure that caffeine concentration is relatively low. A caffeine content reduction of at least 97% is required under United States FDA standards.

Recently, I was informed that decaf coffee is bad for me, health wise. I was puzzling about decaf coffee because suddenly it was unavailable except in very small sizes at very high prices for those little bitty cans.

I allow myself two cups of real coffee in the morning. Then I switch to tea. Later I go to decaf coffee. This is in an effort to look after my blood pressure. I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure or hypertension. So I take steps to minimize the problem where fitting to do so.

There are many ways to remove caffeine from coffee beans. Most of them include water, organic solvents, or carbon dioxide.

Coffee beans are washed in the solvent until the caffeine is extracted, and then the solvent is removed.

Caffeine can also be removed using carbon dioxide or a charcoal filter — a method known as the Swiss water process.

The beans are decaffeinated before they’re roasted and ground. Apart from the caffeine content, the nutritional value of decaf coffee should be almost identical to that of regular coffee.

I am not going to give up drinking coffee. One reason is that it actually has benefits for health. Another reason is that I love my coffee.

Drinking coffee, both regular and decaf, has been associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Depending on the results of different research studies, each daily cup may reduce the risk by between 6% and 11%.

Coffee is one of the healthiest beverages on the planet. It’s loaded with antioxidants and linked to reduced risk of all sorts of serious diseases. (I am quoting Healthline here).

Whatever solvent might be used to decaffeinate the coffee beans, it is removed before processing the beans further. Recent concerns over the toxicity of the chemicals used raised red flags for some. So I looked into that.

I went to Consumer Reports, a source I have trusted for a long while now to find out for sure.

They talked to experts including William D. Ristenpart, Ph.D., a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Davis, and director of the UC Davis Coffee Center, to figure out what we really know. The product in question is methylene chloride and is controversial in some coffee circles.

In 1999, however, the FDA concluded that the trace amounts you get in decaf coffee are too minuscule to affect your health. The agency strictly limits its presence to no more than 10 parts per million, or 0.001 percent, of the final product.

Experts say you shouldn't be concerned about the chemicals used in the decaffeination process.

This information is good to know but it does not explain the extreme shortage of decaf coffee. The answer I got from the internet is:

The decaf coffee shortage is due to a combination of factors, including increased demand, limited decaffeination capacity, and global coffee supply chain disruptions. Decaf production requires extra processing steps, and with more people opting for decaf, the existing facilities can't keep up, leading to delays and shortages. Apparently there are very few (worldwide) decaf processing plants.

Decaf's share of US coffee consumption climbed by 33% from 2024 to 2025, according to the NCA. So the demand is high, the processing plants are few, and the supply chain is highly interrupted with everything going on these days.

And that's all I know about this at this time.

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Address.